Familiarity keeps us fans of game shows

Roger Dobkowitz, the longtime producer of “The Price Is Right,” has this perfectly plausible theory of why college kids tune into programs like his — one which happens to be so profoundly uncool, so blissfully buzz- free, so totally retro that it would make even Ron Burgundy sneer.

“It’s been around for 33 years (in its current form), and these are the same kids who used to watch when they were 5, 6, 7 years old,” Dobkowitz explains. “Now they are facing a whole new world, but they can turn on the TV set and there’s good ol’ Bob (Barker) and ‘Price Is Right,’ just like they used to remember.”

This is the same theory behind a bizarre cultural hiccup in the early ‘70s, when another Bob — Buffalo Bob Smith — did a nationwide tour of college campuses with “Howdy Doody.”

There he was, old “Buff,” singing the classic songs to packed gyms, with the sweet scent of cannabis wafting through the air. With Vietnam raging, he was a gentle, nostalgic blast from a much simpler past.

And that goes a long way toward explaining why we still love game shows, especially “Price,” “Wheel of Fortune” and “Jeopardy!”

This is the immutable TV Law of the Familiar, a sense that everything else in life may be thrown asunder, but Alex Trebek will forever remain his dear old dull Canadian self, while Pat Sajak will forever hold the card, and Vanna White — aahh, Vanna — will remain forever young and blond and mute.

“Jeopardy” is suddenly one of the hottest shows on TV, thanks to Mr. Ken “Joe DiMaggio” Jennings.

Through the episode that aired Thursday night, Jenkins, a software engineer from Salt Lake City, had won 37 straight “Jeopardy” contests, totaling $1,246,660 in winnings. (After the episode broadcast Friday, the show goes on summer hiatus until September.)

In response to the once-blistering “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” “Jeopardy!” boosted its cash prizes a couple of seasons ago. And at the start of its 20th season last fall, the show changed its longtime rule that said a champion must leave after five straight wins. Now a player stays until losing.

“The five-show rule goes back to the quiz show scandals (of the 1950s) and was the networks’ respectful answer to the Federal Communications Commission to prevent contestants from becoming professionals,” explains Bob Boden, a former executive with the Game Show Network and now head of his own Los Angeles-based production company.

“In the days of the daytime game show, all those that were network-based had five-show rules,” he says.

But an obvious risk for “Jeopardy!” is this: A brainiac who’s less than telegenic (unlike Jenkins) lands on the show and never leaves.

“Really, the whole sky-is-the-limit change is still a work in progress, and it’s still too soon to know whether it’s successful,” says says Harry Friedman, executive producer of both “Jeopardy!” and “Wheel of Fortune,” adding: “We want to see how it holds up over the long term.”

Despite such tinkering, their sheer simplicity is what makes shows such as “Jeopardy” so enduring and endearing, says Steve Beverly, a professor at Union University in Jackson, Tenn., and Web master of tvgameshows.net.

” ‘Price,’ ‘Wheel’ and ‘Jeopardy!’ are probably three of the simplest formats in TV history,” he says. “Most of the other series that come and go are so complex, or they strip contestants of last names (full names are always given on these chestnuts), or the execution is so hard, or producers take the personality out of the game, or they pick the wrong emcee, who overpowers the game.”

A lot of Alex Trebek wannabes are former comics, he observes, “who are (carnival) barkers who don’t realize that the contestants have to be part of the show.”

There are other reasons for those particular shows’ appeal, says Michael Brockman, a consultant and former network executive.

“I remember from my years at NBC that when we did research on ‘Jeopardy!’ we found that most people, psychologically, knew that passive viewing was not the best use of their time,” Brockman says. “With ‘Jeopardy!,’ you at least got the justification of viewing because it was educational.”

The pleasure of “Price,” another show he worked on?

“You pick up an ashtray (and) anybody will have an estimate of what that ashtray is worth,” says Brockman. ” ‘Price’ requires no specialized area of interest.”

So here’s to the three kings of gameshowdom. May they last forever.

And by the looks of things, they will.